Repentance For Shared Sin: Commonly Asked Questions

The word metanoia means a turning or a change of mind. Repentance involves a revolution in our personal, and collective attitudes and values. It is a word that many Christians today don’t like very much because for many people it connects into a negative guilt experience. However Jesus, John the Baptist, the disciples and the Apostles in Acts seemed to deliver renditions of the gospel that gave repentance a really high priority. They often called people to repentance and faith in Jesus. These 3 words seem to be the most commonly used words. Repentance is about us recognising our sins, and God showing them to us, so that we can be free from them, not to make us feel worse about them in the first place. Repentance is about knowing FREEDOM and seeing societies journey on the long road to freedom together. There isn’t space to go into all the questions below but we hope it is a start. Look out for more detailed resources at a later point.

Q. How Do We Repent Of Others Sins That Are Not Ours?

It is not necessarily that we are repenting for the arms dealer or for the promoters of unjust trade; it is more that we are repenting of not doing what we could have done to help stop this from happening. Our repentance is about shared sin and about our involvement in allowing shared sin to continue, in our name. This is as consumers and citizens of rich countries. Our modern understanding of sin mainly involves what we ‘shouldn’t do’ (sins of ‘commission’) as opposed to the things we ‘should do, but don’t do’. However the Bible also gives a strong emphasis to what we don’t do in the way it defines sin: ‘Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins’ (James 4 v 17).

Many of the parables that Jesus told were about what people didn’t do for the poor as opposed to what they actively did wrong. He considered this theme so important that he repeated it in three parables. The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10v 25-37) talks about religious people walking past a poor injured person while the Good Samaritan cared for him. The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16v19-31) tells of how a rich man ignored a poor man at his gate and was judged as a result. The parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25 v31-46) involves Jesus dividing up the people who did care for the poor (the sheep) who didn’t (the goats). The sheep were sent to everlasting life, and the goats to everlasting death. These parables suggest that to not care for the poor affects our standing before God. These are called ‘sins of omission ’.

It is possible for us as Churches, nations and people groups to commit shared sins of omission by not caring for the poor. Many of the sins today don’t just exist because of the decision makers in governments, but because the church sat back and allowed things to happen. In sins of omission this is where the responsibility we have been talking about as national sin actually does transfer to the church of each nation. This is because the church is Jesus’ body on earth, which has failed to take action to prevent such things from taking place. As far as we have collectively as national Churches failed to defend the rights of the poor, then we have failed to be Jesus’ representatives on earth. This is how God holds us as churches accountable for what we allow in the nations and land we inhabit. Thereby we are repenting not just about what others have done wrong but actually about what we could have done to put it right but didn’t do. So we are repenting about not using our time, our energy and our education to bring change where shared sin has brought injustice. As so many people ask this question it is more about the lack of responsibility we feel for the actions of our representatives to the extent that we genuinely don’t feel responsible any more.

Q. What Is Identificational Repentance And Are SPEAK Advocating For It?

Identificational repentance is about the process of ‘identifying with others’ and asking for forgiveness on behalf of a corporate entity. This connects to the priestly function of standing in the gap based on Ezekiel 22. It also connects to being intercessors as we identify with those we are praying for. People looking at reconciliation issues in Charismatic circles have been strong on identificational repentance since the early / mid 1990s. This has also involved apologising and repenting connected to the history of Britain etc.

When people engage in identification repentance there are varying degrees to which they are also connected to the sin they are personally attempting to repent of. However because of the interconnected nature of society it could be argued that western affluence we enjoy today and the way the trade system works has largely been built up off the back of slavery.

Some people do question elements of this theological approach. There may be differences of opinion in SPEAK on identificational repentance itself and the exact interpretation of that theology. Some of us may believe in this, others may have questions. However where we do agree is that sin is essentially not just a personal matter but shared/ collective issue and thereby so is repentance. Injustice essentially relates to shared sin and the only way we can deal with this is through living out a repentance and faith lifestyle. We see the need to repent of not taking on our responsibility for defending the rights of the poor as we should. The quote from Martin Luther King on our first T-shirts says it all:

‘ At the end of the twenty first Century many of us will have to repent, not the great evils we have done but of the apathy that has prevented us from doing anything’.

Q. Why Is This So Important To SPEAK? How Does Repentance Connect To Campaigns?

If we are just going to campaign for change without relying on God to empower our actions we could end up worshiping human effort. This would be by believing that we can change things in our own strength by just our well-organised campaigns. However in reality we must do this in God’s strength. It gives God the opportunity to show God’s spirit working and to show people the significance of the cross in relation to justice issues.

We can show how God has worked with us in miraculous ways. Stories like God’s provision with the Big Dress (have a look at the SPEAK website for more information) helps us to share with people how God is helping us bring transformation as a result of what Jesus did on the cross. Living in the reality of our repentance will constantly help people understand and see the cross (though we do need to understand that it is a journey). We still absolutely need to proclaim the message verbally. Repentance is about coming to the point personally and collectively that we need Gods strength to bring change in our own lives and change to our society.

Q. Should We Not Just Leave Questions That Are So Complicated And Get On With What Is Clear?

There are some complexities around repentance for shared sin. However there are added complexities about what we have come to define as clear. It is difficult to fully explain how individualised our understanding of sin has become compared to the Hebrew understanding. There will always be an element of mystery and uncertainty in the way we relate to God and our understanding of theology that undergirds our faith. The Bible talks about mystery itself. In all this, part of repenting and expressing our repentance to God as we come to the cross, can also be acknowledging that we don’t fully understand how this all adds together. It says in the Bible that we don’t know how to pray but the spirit intercedes for us in groans that words cannot express. Perhaps intercessory groans is our form of bringing this to God after we watch the news and allowing ourselves to kneel before him in groans but also in weakness.

However we need to walk in the areas of practice that are clearly revealed and it does seem that a desire for social justice connected to how that impacts what happens spiritually is clear in the prophets and the Bible itself. We can be sure of the call to care for the poor and oppressed and be a voice for them. We can be sure of the call to rely on God and not our own strengthen in this journey. We can be sure of the testimonies of people who have stepped out in this way, William Wilberforce, Elizabeth Fry, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu. We can be sure that not to care, love or act is a sin. We all know that we haven’t done enough for the poor. So there does seem a lot to be clear about, even if there are differences in the exact theological interpretation of how this all hangs together. We also know God calls us to life in abundance so we have to recognise this is God’s not ours, and this can enable us to relax and have a good time too!

Recommended Reading
• Martin Scott. Sewing The Seeds of Revival. Sovereign World 199.
• Johannes Facius Explaining Intercession Sovereign World 1993.
• Roger Mitchell and Brian Mills, Sins Of The Fathers Sovereign World 1999.
• Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers, Fortress Press, 1992.
• Walter Wink, Naming The Powers, Fortress Press, 1984.